188 



Editors' Letter Box. 



ceived, were of rather poor quality. I 

 received a bottle of wine tVoni a Mr. 

 Arenty, in tMiiciniiati, which will favor- 

 ably oonii>are in bon(iuet, smoothness 

 and pleasant flavor with good imported 

 Burgundy, although not equal to the 

 Norton's, which I tasted at the house of 

 Mr. Wm. Kentz, at Cincinnati, Have 

 you tried the metliod of I'asteur, of heat- 

 ing wine, and thus ripening it sooner, 

 and will your readers be advised of the 

 result? It will also be introduced in 

 Austria, mostly for the lighter wines. 

 Should we not try to get Congress to 

 impose a duty of 50 cents to the gallon 

 on the liglit imported wines? 

 Yours truly, 



CiiAS, L. Schmidt. 



[The method of grafting you describe 

 we think would be impracticable, for 

 several reasons. One of them is, as 

 you remark, the scions have to be too 

 long, and we seldom have wood enough 

 of the new varieties to waste so much 

 on a single vine. Another is the im- 

 mense labor involved. A third, the 

 difficulty of bending the vine with the 

 scion without in some way removing- it. 

 "We think you will experience no diffi. 

 culty if yon folhnv tiie method described 

 in the Marcli number. Our friend, Sam. 

 Miller, has grafted some 1500 in that 

 manner in March and April, of which 

 the majority seem to grow. 



"We do not tliink we are unjust towards 

 the Ives, "\Vc liave tried a great many 

 samples of the wine, and although some 

 among them were very fair, they Avere 

 not better than the best Concords, You 

 yourself acknowledge tliat it is not as 

 good as the Nortons, AVe shall be most 

 hai)py if we find reason to change our 

 opinion, bnt so far we can not do so. 



The method of Pasteur will be duly 

 discussed in the continuation of the 

 article " The Cliemistry of AViiie." We 

 can not tell all uo kmiw, at once, al- 



though we do not profess to know all 

 about wine making, and grape growing, 

 as some pretend to know. " Gie us time, 

 gude folks," and you will get all our 

 secrets. 



As to the duty question, we hope to 

 be able in a few years to furnish wines 

 so good and so cheap, that they will 

 drive the lower brands of imported 

 wines out of the market, surer than any 

 tariff could do.]— Ed. 



Indian Run P. O., Mercer Co., Pa. ^ 

 May 3, 181)9. S 



Dear Sir: I send you by mail this day 

 two varieties of grape vines — small 

 plants. One is called Craig, after the 

 name of the man that brought it here, 

 some fifty years ago or more ; the other 

 is called French grape; and they both 

 are known here by the name of French 

 grape. They were found growing, more 

 than sixty years ago, at the old French 

 Fort, Alleghany i-iver, where the town 

 of Franklin now stands, some twentj^- 

 live miles northeast of this place. Our 

 first settlers supposed that the French 

 had planted them there while they occu- 

 pied the Fort in earlier days. However, 

 they may be some of the wild grapes, as 

 a great many grew her3 wild in the first 

 settling of the country. But I have 

 never found, seen or heard of any that 

 was like them. They have never been 

 propagated any, but some little that I 

 have done. The vines are hardy, and 

 there is no telling how old the original 

 vines arc. The growth of the vines and 

 fruit of the two are different. Fruit 

 dark colored ; bunch and berry medium 

 sized; ripe after the middle of Septem- 

 ber; full of quite red juice, and not bad 

 to eat when ri^^e. Several persons have 

 made tolerable fair wine of them, trying 

 them in small quantities only, as we do 

 not understand nor make much Avine 

 here yet, I am i)lanting out consider- 

 able grapes of different kinds, aiul may 



